Old Man's Bowl

I love tree skiing, but had a real hankering for some open, alpine skiing, so when my cycling cohort Forest suggested we ski up out of Convict Lake, I was more than game. I scooped up my buddies Steve and Nick and headed up there.

There's probably thousands of pictures of Convict Lake with Mt Laurel behind, but here's another. Never gets old.

I was thankful for the skin track up the moraine, although I would not praise the route selection. I've seen worse! Here Steve nears the top.

Once above the moraine the terrain opens up nicely. Steve took this shot of Nick, me, and Forest.

 Nick takes a good long turn on the front near the top of the bowl.

 And Forest takes the final pull up to the ridge with Mt Morrison behind.

 Forest points with the massive north face of Mt Morrison behind.

 The pointed at feature was the Pinner Couloir on Laurel Mountain. Someday. Maybe.

After a little scrapping around off the top in shallow snow and rocks we enjoyed fine powder skiing.

Steve cruising the upper bowl.

 Nick tele skied with style.

 The snow was sooo nice!

 Nick captures the general feeling near the bottom. Thanks for this pic Steve.

I regret not getting some good shots of Forest who absolutely slayed it on the split board. He was moving so fast and was such fun to watch I never got my act together to get a good one. Next time.

The snow pack was well behaved. We experienced no collapsing (whumping), Near the ridge at the top we did kick off a couple of small, shallow soft slabs that ran pretty far. Might of had enough punch to knock you down, not enough to bury you. Otherwise the snow pack seemed very solid without any hollow/funky layers. The snow is very thin in many areas in this zone and a few inches of fluff that fell without much wind easily disguise the very shallow spots. We all suffered some base damage, but nothing too severe.

Beautiful day, beautiful snow, great partners. 

Can't ask for more.

Thanks guys.